


Miraculous : Tales of Lady Monarch and Chat Noir (REDUX)

by Critical_Damage



Series: Miraculous Monarch [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bee Chloé Bourgeois | Queen Bee, Black Cat Gabriel Agreste, Butterfly Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloé Bourgeois's Queen Bee Identity is Secret, Confident Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Evil Lila Rossi, F/F, F/M, Fox Lila Rossi, Gabriel Agreste Is Not Hawk Moth, Good Parent Gabriel Agreste, Kwami Swap, Ladybug Adrien Agreste | Mister Bug, Lesbian disaster Lila Rossi, Lila Rossi Lies, Lila Rossi Redemption, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Peacock Gabriel Agreste, She's no longer clumsy!, Smart Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Temporary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29268558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Critical_Damage/pseuds/Critical_Damage
Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a teenage girl who fights a mysterious villain that has manged to get their hands on the Miracle Box: Chai. Follow her adventures in her last school year at Francoise Dupont as she fights this villain with the help of Chat Noir, Nooroo. the Butterfly Kwami of Transmision, as well as a few other allies she makes along the way, some former enemies!
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Melodie
Series: Miraculous Monarch [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565293
Comments: 17
Kudos: 29





	1. Regrets and wasted time

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings and welcome to the REDUX!  
> This is the first chapter of my remake and it will be a lot more involved than the original, as well as longer!
> 
> I bid you a happy reading!

It has been a year since the disappearance of French actress, activist and philanthropist Emilie Agreste (Graham de Vanily). The details regarding the incident are foggy, the only thing known for sure being that she disappeared while on her second trip to Tibet. There had been rumors going around that her health had declined since the first trip, but she and her husband had declined to give any comments on this and the media was not completely focusing on them, the mysterious appearance and even more mysterious disappearance of the vigilante known as Plume Bleue, as well as the appearance of another vigilante, this one known as Grand Chat, sharing the spotlight.

The disappearance of Emilie Agreste has nonetheless given way to a large scandal as fashion mogul husband Gabriel Agreste, the last person to see Emilie Agreste before her disappearance, has been accused of orchestrating the incident in the first place. Following this the Chaton brand has reported a major sale’s plummet. Mister Agreste has denied all accusations and has also been found not guilty in his trial. In time he managed to recover from the financial blow caused by these frightening news through diligent work and an inspiration from an unknown source...

* * *

_Gabriel was standing on the sidewalk with his wife. The whole journey to the airport had been sunny, just like it was supposed to be for an early morning summer day, however the weather had quickly changed, rain starting to pour down. Now Gabriel was looking down at his shoes, noticing with scorn that they were falling victim to the rainwater that slicked the pavement. His gaze was brought up by the musical sound of Em’s giggling, his smile turning with a frown when the happy tune ended with the discordant noise of dry coughing._

_“Are you sure about leaving in this condition?” his concerned voice coming out with a softness reserved for few._

_“I’ll be fine Gabe! No amount of coughing and dizziness will stop me from giving a helping wing to the people.” her voice radiating confidence despite its weakness._

_“I know but maybe you could reschedule and go when you’re feeling better.”_

_“If I start rescheduling then I will never be able to keep on top of my other responsibilities.”_

_Gabriel made a face, his concerned eyes big as plates, something she jokingly called “baby doll eyes”. Em sighed in what seemed to be defeat but her smile said otherwise._

_”Here.” she said, giving him her peacock brooch, an accessory she never took off, wearing it even when she went to sleep._

_“Now you know that I will make it back.”_

_Gabriel gently took Em’s precious brooch and placed it in his suit jacket’s interior pocket._

_“Make sure to phone me and Adrien when you arrive. You know how he gets.”_

_“I know.” she said turning back to gather her suitcase._

_Gabriel turned away and made for the car as the rain got louder. Before he could enter his car however he heard a frightened shout from his wife. Afraid of what had happened, Gabriel turned and tried to run toward the scream but was unable to as his feet wouldn’t budge. He looked down horrified by the sight of a pair of hands made out of water that were pulling him downward. Gabriel struggled to no avail as he was sinking in a giant puddle, more hands grabbing onto him and pulling until ice cold water swallowed his legs, then his torso, then_ _—_

* * *

Gabriel sat up in his bed, drenched in cold sweat and gasping for air. He was holding his dizzy head into his hands, trying to calm his breathing.

_This is the 4th time this week._ he bitterly thought to himself. He turned his head towards the digital alarm clock on his nightstand, the red numbers practically taunting him. 3:00. He sunk his head back into his hands rubbing at his eyes and massaging his temples.

_No more sleep tonight._

Gabriel slid out of bed, putting on his slippers, robe and glasses as he made his way towards his bathroom. Once there and in front of the mirror he had a realization: he looked horrible. His mussed light blonde hair had a few white strands, he had dark bags under his eyes and his chin had a lot more stubble than he cared to keep.

_No amount of work will get this under control…_ the experienced fashion designer thought to himself. So he didn’t bother at all. All he did in the middle of the night was splash some water on his face, brush his teeth and have a shower. Gabriel made his way back to his room and, after a bit of looking around in his wardrobe, put on some clothes he liked: a dark blue suit over a black shirt and a silver colored waistcoat with blue buttons. He then put his contacts in and walked out to his atelier. Once there he stopped in front of the portrait of his wife and pressed a few secret buttons on it, the floor under him beginning to move down and down, acting like a lift that arrived at an underground repository under the Agreste Mansion. The place was beautiful, moonlight coming over a small garden, electric light illuminating the large room further. In the middle of the garden green light emanated from a cryogenic pod where the love of his life, Emily, was held in suspended animation. Gabriel sighed as he placed his hand on the glass of the pod’s lid.

“We’ll be together again… when I learn how to undo what happened to you…”

The blond man turned to the small wooden table next to the pod, on it a small white box with his company’s logo (a geometric design of a featureless black cat’s head) and opened it, a thick black ring with a disk in the middle, a tiny cat’s paw print radiating neon green light. Gabriel grabbed the ring and slid it on his left hand’s ring finger, a bit of neon green light flying out of it as it changed from black to a simple dark blue, matching his suit, the light that flew out taking a more cohesive shape as it dimmed, revealing tiny cat like creature. The creature yawned before opening his eyes and looking at Gabriel.

“Hey Gabe! Ready for another night of heroing? Are you? Are you?” asked the small cat excitedly. The experienced fashion designer chuckled.

“Of course Plagg…!”

“Ok, but first: where’s my Camembert?” asked the now named Plagg. Gabriel pointed to the table, where, near the small white bos, was another cylindrical shaped box. Inside of it was some Camembert cheese, Plagg’s favorite kind and the food that acted as fuel for the magical abilities he granted.

Plagg was a Kwami, a spirit-like being that embodied an ‘abstract’ concept, in his case ‘Destruction;. His existence in this plane was granted by the power of jewel, his being a ring, in exchange of allowing a human being to make use of a fraction of his power. His current master was Gabriel Agreste. Soon after his wife’s disappearance he uncovered the magi nature of the two jewels she had brought back from her first trip to Tibet, Plagg’s ring and her Duusu’s brooch, and, under Plagg’s guidance (if it could be called that) he made use of the black cat Miraculous to try and attract the Order of the Guardian’s attention (without success so far)…

“Ok! I’m ready! Let’s go kick some ass Gabe!”

“Plagg! Claws out!” exclaimed the blond man as he punched the air, the little cat Kwami getting succeed into the ring energy flaring forth. Gabriel stomped his foot, a ring of neon green energy coming from the ground up and changing his appearance. Now, he was dressed in a black suit with a tunic collar, a bell at the collar, worn under a black buttonless trench coat with the lapel popped up. His face was obscured by a black metallic helmet with unmoving cat ears and white eyes with slit neon green pupils that were animate and functioned to match Gabriel’s expression at the moment. Over his hands he had had silver metallic gauntlets with shit claws, which matched the toed, metallic, clawed boots he also sported. Finally around his waist, over the suit, was a sash, attached to it a silver staff.

“Show time…!” said Grand Chat to nobody as he had the repository’s simple large window open for him to jump out of.

* * *

Grand Chat took to the streets for patrolling and in no time at all he found some trouble: from the edge of a roof he spotted thieves breaking into a jewelry store and taking pretty much everything they could fit in their bags. The elder cat hero immediately jumped down from his vantage point and landed silently on all fours. He casually sauntered over to the shop and leaned on the door frame, crossing his arms.

“Hurry it up! Police will be here any minute now!” said one of the thieves to the other two.

“You know, it’s people like you who make me believe in the saying ‘Life imitates art’ more and more.” The thieves suddenly turned at the sound of a new voice, seeing Grand Chat in his position. He waved.

“You picked the wrong people to mess with bub!” said one of the other two guys, pulling out a gun. With frightening speed Grand Chat moved from his spot, dodging the bullet.

“That’s going to be annoying… For you, obviously: your about to waste an entire magazine!” said Grand Chat amused as he continued to effortlessly dodged the gun shots, each of one missing. Then the click of an empty gun was heard. “Any more of those you want to waste on me? You’d have better luck running at me.” advised the cat hero.

The third thief ran at him with a crowbar, taking his advice. He first swung overhead, the elder cat hero dodging to the side, he then swung from side to side, making him bow and discreetly gad a hold of his collapsed staff. The thief once again tried for an over head swing, but Grand Chat, instead of dodging, pulled himself up and had his staff extend one way only to block the attack. The two stood in a stalemate for a few seconds, the hero with a bored expression while the thief looked constipated as he pushed on the staff to no avail. Grand Chat yawned before he twisted the crowbar out of the man’s hands, had the other part of his staff extend to hit him full force into his stomach, before he swiped with it, knocking him down. He made short work of the other two, who tried to take him on in hand to hand, earning a couple of scratches for their trouble. Grand Chat tied them all nicely and made his way out of the store, jumping in the air and continuing on with his patrol. This night seemed to be relatively calm, so he soon parkoured his way over to the Seine and— Grand Chat got hit by someone (something?) midair, landing with the thing (it was definitely a person) on the ground. He opened his eyes after a second to see the ugliest thing in the world: the head of some weird monster with mandibles. The monster chuckled.

“ **Grand Chat…! I have been looking for you for some time…** ” said the monster with a deep, guttural voice.

“Have you considered going to a dentist? Your breath reeks!” said the elder cat hero before knocking the monster off with the help of his extending staff. He assumed a battle ready position.

“ **I like the candor. Now, try to resist for as long as possible… I want this to be interesting!** ” said the monster as he went to attack.

Whatever this **thing** was, its strength and speed were **way** above what Grand Chat was used to the elder cat hero having trouble dodging and blocking attacks, getting launched any which way by this monster. Its defensive capabilities were nothing to sneeze at either, the hero’s attacks doing nearly nothing to hurt it. It was also relatively big which proved a little hard for the hero since the one sweet spot he found, its head, was difficult to hit. From the monster’s perspective, he was severely disappointed, throwing around the elder cat hero like he was a ragdoll. Eventually he got bored of playing with him and became serious, using his massive strength to pin him to wall with his arm to his neck.

“ **Boring you proved to be! Now, to take your little ring~!** ”

“In… your dream’s…” replied Grand Chat, activating his destructive power, protecting the ring with it.

“ **Hm! That won’t save you. You’re only prolonging the inevitable with that trick.** ”

“I guess you know… how lethal this is?”

“ **Yes, and I’m more than capable to wait you out. You won’t use it on me, coward…!** ”

“…I’m sorry…” said Grand Chat out of nowhere.

“ **Sorry…? For what?!** ”

“For whoever has to clean up the mess I’m about to make!” replied the elder cat hero as he slapped the wall he was pinned to, turning, degrading it within seconds. That, combined with the strength of the monster, caused it to break, Grand Chat’s adversary getting tripped up and himself getting free. He repositioned himself in the air last second, landing on his hands and launching himself backwards before taking off quickly, knowing he couldn’t take on that monster. The monster followed him, but he eventually lost track of him, as the hero managed to hide. The monster roared.

“ **You may have gotten away this time, but be assured I will find you and TAKE YOUR MIRACULOUS!** ”

* * *

At around 6:00 Gabriel was back in bed, sleep still not coming to him, watching something on TV instead, Plagg by his side.

“So let me get this straight: he **knew** you had a Miraculous?”

“Yes… I don’t know how, or why, but it knew. It really wanted it too.”

“Weird! It doesn’t sound like a Guardian to me. I mean the guy straight up attacked you!”

“I’m going to lay low for a while. Keep out of sight. It’s not like I’m needed for anything special; all I do is beat up thieves and sometimes drug traffickers.”

By 7:00 am in the morning Gabriel managed to get a bit of sleep, before his alarm woke him up. The only thing he did was shave his stubble, leaving his hair as it was. The experienced fashion designer decided to forgo breakfast and take a walk outside, putting on an outfit that would thankfully keep him anonymous.


	2. Go protagonists! Go!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings!  
> Welcome to the second chapter! The first chapter was to set the mood and now it's TIME for the protagonists: Adrien and Marinette are having their time to SHINE!

A blue haired girl woke up in early, at around 6:00 am. Well, ‘woke up’ is not necessarily the right wording, as she had been awake for a while, unable to sleep due to the pain she felt in her right leg. This was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the intelligent and formerly clumsy daughter of Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain, as well as Paris’ future new top fashion designer. She had, after an incident, been in need of a cane to walk, her right leg hurting so much she was on medication to combat the pain. The first thing she actually did as she shuffled off her bed was taking a pill before she grabbed her adjustable, metallic cane and began limping around her room to get ready. She put on a sleeveless, collared t-shirt with the top button missing, a pair of purple jeans and a double breasted, three button, gray blazer. Finally she transferred the purple brooch she had attached to her pajama’s shirt to the T-shirt, making it act as the top button. The blue haired teen, now ready for the day walked over to a small pin cushion devoid of pins, where a small, cute, fairy looking creature was sleeping peacefully. She patted his head softly whispering:

“Wakey-wakey my cinnamon roll! Today’s school day.”

The little creature shifted on the small pin cushion that acted as his bed before yawning and opening his eyes. The little cinnamon roll was Nooroo, a purple Kwami which earned his nickname for the little swirl symbol on his forehead. He was one of Marinette’s oldest friends, the powerful being mere presence possible only with the power of the magical brooch in the girl’s possession, given to her by her mother as a present on her 4th birthday along with a large tome filled with strange writing and beautiful images, among them one of the brooch itself and a warrior looking man dressed in purple beside it. For some time the girl had been working on deciphering the text and she had been relatively successful, her Kwami pleasantly surprised… Back to the present, Marinette walked down the stairs of her room and arrived at the living room, grabbing a page from the notepad and the adjacent pen, writing down a message to her parents about leaving early. She pinned it to the fridge before opening it and grabbing the box with black berries, placing it in her schoolbag. It was 7:00 am as the young fashion designer left through the front door, saying bye to her dad and limping into her neighborhood, arriving at her wanted destination: ‘Quantum Café’, a place where her best friend outside of school was, as well as the place with some of the best food besides home. Today of all days was a lot more busy than usual (probably because today was the first day of school). Marinette’s gaze scanned over the café’s interior, finding one seat free at one table, another person sitting on it, dressed in a coat, with a silk scarf around his neck and wearing a fedora indoors. She walked over and took a seat, something which caught the man’s attention.

“This is the only empty seat here and, as you can see…” she trailed off, showing off her cane. “So we’ll both have to pretend we’re alone at the table and get on with our lives. Fun!” she finished, her voice dripping with sarcasm and a little bit of amusement. That made the man shut up and look back down at his menu as the young fashion designer pulled out a notebook and put on a pair of circular glasses, beginning to doodle in it some clothes design or another. A tall lady with side swept, undercut hair walked over and gave the blue haired teen a cup of fresh lemonade and a slice of meat pie. “Thank you Miss Melody.” spoke Marinette, her hands signing her words as well. The woman silently gave a thumbs up, showing off a thousand watt smile. Marinette let her notebook sit on the table as she took a sip of the lemonade, the man giving his order in the meantime. After he did so, he observed the notebook on the table and the contents of two pages. Marinette immediately noticed him almost staring at it. She was about to say something but all that came out was:

“Huh...” The young fashion designer’s head tilted her head to the side before she took off her glasses and turned them facing the man’s face: “Ooh~! Now **this** is interesting…” she said before lowering her voice “Never the great Gabriel Agreste liked this place.”

“…This is my first time here…” he replied in a hushed voice.

“Gotcha! Don’t worry; I won’t say anything.” Marinette went back to her eating as Gabriel looked at the notebook.

“Actually, could I…” he trailed of, motioning for Marinette’s design sketchbook.

“Sure, go ahead.” was her reply.

The experienced fashion designer received his order from the woman and he thanked her with a nod, beginning to drink his coffee as he paged through the girl’s sketchbook. There were many different clothing designs, some in the classic line, while others evoked a Chinese inspiration, but still managed to remain relatively casual. There were even designs for jewelry, such as a ‘Make your own bracelet’ or some animal inspired ones.

“Those are mine by the way. You can’t have any. There’s a date on each page—”

“—and your initials or signature on every design, all discreetly added. Impressive. May I ask who you are?”

“You already did. Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I study at Francoise Dupont High School.” she leaned a bit over the table, her hand held in an expected handshake, the blond man obliging.

“You know who I am.”

“Yes I do.” After that things went quiet for a bit, both finishing their breakfasts. Then Gabriel broke the silence:

“Not to be rude, but what exactly happened to your leg?”

“Hm… Let’s go with medical condition. Does that sound good?”

“…If you don’t wish to speak of your condition—”

“I **obviously** don’t want to speak of it. Everyone asks and I’ll always answer the same: **It’s personal** … <Sigh> Sorry I have school to get to school. I assume your son has to do that too. Have a nice day, I guess.” she bid to the man. Her last statement regarding his son reminded him of what he told him this morning and he, without even realizing, said this:

“Tell Adrien I said hello.”

Marinette nodded, her face a combination of calmness and tiredness. She made a sign to Miss Melodie and paid for her breakfast, before standing up and pulling out a small pill bottle from her blazer’s left pocket, popping one. The young fashion designer decided to leave for school, but not before a blond teen girl dressed in white and purple ran after her and hugged her from behind.

“Melodie…” greeted the blue haired teen with a smile with a softness in her voice reserved for few.

“Mari! How’s your day been?”

“Nice, I guess.”

“ARE YOU READY FOR SCHOOL?”

“ **Please** , not so loud... And I am.”

“Cool. I’m ready too. Have fun at school~!” Melodie hugged Marinette again, giving her a kiss on the cheek, the blue haired teen returning the hug with one arm.

Marinette and Melodie went on their separate ways, the blue haired teen limping to school and arriving 10 minutes early, taking her usual seat at the lowest desk near the window in her class. There were a few others of her classmates, who thankfully were still in the same class, namely Alix, Max, Ivan and Mylene. The others still hadn’t arrived, so she wasn’t sure if her class was going to be functionally the same or if she needed to ignore any newcomers and let her old classmates tell the new ones the situation. A pair of teens arrived after Marinette, namely a smug looking blond and her posey of one: Chloe Bourgeois and Sabrina Reincomprix. The blond had her usual stuck up smile on her face, but it disappeared, her face taking an annoyed expression (which was almost the default one at that), as she walked over to where Marinette was.

“What do you want Bourgeois?” asked the young fashion designer bored, not even sparing her a look.

“What I want is for you to leave that seat! My sweet friend Adrikins is coming to school on the first day and he’s going to seat on the desk next over. So move up!”

“Don’t care. Now if you don’t leave I’m going to take this cane and break **your leg**.”

“Pffft! Oh please, like you’d ever— OW!” exclaimed the blond in pain, as Marinette hit her right knee with her cane. “Why you— Get out of **my** seat!”

“Oh it’s your seat now, huh? Does the little miss want to cry about it to her daddy?” mocked the young fashion designer.

“What was that? Why don’t you get and…” the blond girl trailed off as Marinette sat up and looked at her menacingly, the blue haired teen taking advantage of the almost two inches of height she had on her. “…never mind; you know what, you can keep your seat.” finished Chloe with an almost laughing tone, trying to appease the young fashion designer. The arrogant blond heard a giggle from behind her and turned to see Alya was the one giggling.

“What are you laughing about?! I—”

“Move it ponytail! NOW!” shouted Marinette by the end.

“Of course! Sorry!” Chloe and Sabrina moved up to the desk behind the front one near the class door as Alya sat down next to Marinette, the two chatting a tiny bit.

* * *

Adrien Agreste, son of fashion mogul Gabriel Agreste and model for his Chaton clothing brand, was a kind and free spirited teenager that wished for one thing and one thing only: a normal life. He wanted to go to school and, most importantly, to hang out with friends, not spend his days cooped up in his large room with tons of video games, endless piano and fencing lessons and private tutoring via Nathalie, his father’s assistant and the de facto babysitter. The blond teen’s family life wasn’t that sad in the past, his mother Emilie taking the role of nurturing him and giving him what he wanted while his father was usually the one to draw a limit and keep him from becoming an arrogant boy like other pampered rich kids. However, after his mother’s disappearance there no longer was anyone to provide that love and support, nobody to help him negotiate with his stubborn father. This year he had once again asked to be allowed to go to school, hoping that his good behavior was enough to buy himself this privilege. It was not apparently, as Gabriel had once again **refused** to allow him to go, giving the tired spiel about the ‘dangers’ of the ‘outside world’ and how Adrien needed to stay at home to be safe… So today, after he woke up bright and early, he had a quick shower, brushed his teeth, put on **different clothes** **than usual** (a light blue shirt over T-shirt with three red blue and green stripes), sneaked into the kitchen and made himself a sandwich before he silently made his way back into his room to get his schoolbag. After all that the blond teen silently made his way to the front door and escaped the mansion, a quick run through the yard, putting a cap on to hopefully hide himself a little bit so he hopefully won’t get mobbed by fans (which there were many off), leaving through the gate and he was home free, literally! Adrien made a run for it, going to the school he was **supposed** to study at for this year: Francoise Dupont High School. After a few minutes of running he had arrived at his destination, and if he hurried a little more he was going to be in class on time. His phone began to ring however, and he looked at it, seeing that his father was calling. The fact that his father took the time out of his busy schedule to **call** him made him curious about what he wanted, but his shock quickly dispelled as Adrien’s shock quickly dispelled as he figured he was going to order him to go back home. The blond teen was going to have none of it:

“Father, I’m sorry, but I’m putting my foot down! I want a normal life and I won’t let you deprive me of it!” exclaimed the blond, his body trembling from a combination of anger and fear, no longer having the power to say anything else as he waited for his father to say something, most likely shout at him for raising his voice… however:

“You’re right son… I’ve kept you locked away in our mansion for too long… I’m allowing you to go to school on the condition that you are driven to and from school, understood?” replied Gabriel, his voice steely but the end.

“…Y-Yes. Yes I understand! **Thank you** father!” exclaimed Adrien, a happiness present in his soul and expressed through his voice that hadn’t been there since his mother disappeared. The blond teen almost teared up at how happy he was. He was going to have friends and have schoolwork!

“Have a nice day at school.” said Gabriel before closing the call.

Adrien ran into the school and, unfortunately did not make it on time, the teacher already inside and all the students in their desk. He felt a little awkward, but he pushed the feeling down and sat at the only free sit in the class, next to a teen with glasses, headphones around his neck and a cap on. Everyone was curious about his arrival, which was clearly not planned (his father would probably have to discuss the details with the principal later), their questions answered by the explosive reaction of a certain blonde.

“Adrikins!” shouted Chloe, practically throwing herself onto him.

“Chloe would you like to introduce us to your friend?” asked Miss Bustier, stunned by the arrogant blond girl’s sudden burst of affection.

“Of course! Everyone this is—”

“Hey, Agreste? Your father says hi!” cut in a girl seating at the next desk. Adrien looked at her: beautiful, with a bit messy, blue hair tied back in two long and pointy pigtails, dressed in formal yet casual wear, her face a mix of seriousness and tiredness, an amused smile breaking that seriousness a little.

“Oh… Thanks?” said Adrien. The blond boy was unsure of what happened, but he felt that this girl had a hand in his father’s change of mind... and he was all for it!

* * *

Gabriel closed the call and pocketed his phone. His decision to let his son attend school felt… good. Despite all the dangers the world posed to someone like Adrien, he’d be a fool thinking that **his son** of all people would have problems. He didn’t raise some weak rule follower, as his son’s earlier statement had demonstrated. That was good! One day Adrien would be all alone and if he couldn’t make decisions on his own then the Agreste name was going down in flames.

“So when do we clear his schedule you big softy?” asked Plagg, eating a piece of Camembert. Gabriel was sitting on the edge of a roof, so he was alone and his Kwami could hover out with the worry of anyone seeing him.

“Never! When did we get to that?” asked the experienced fashion designer.

“Just asking. Don’t you think your son needs some free time to hang out with friends?”

“He will have plenty of free time Plagg, believe me. It’s up to him how he’ll spend it… Also I am **not** a softy…!”

“Course you are! And that’s a good thing!”

“Hm…!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette, as I mentioned previously, got a costume change. I feel like the gray blazer feels a little more fitting than the gray jean jacket, mostly because in cannon she also wears a gray blazer. The fact that it's a different type of blazer is meant to just represent her different personality. She's much more serious.
> 
> Adrien on the other hand will be changing clothes very much. I decided to make his design the 'Connie' of my fic (if you know Connie from Steven Universe you also know she almost never has the same clothes). In terms of personality Adrien is practically the same, no big changes yet.
> 
> The relations between Gabriel and Adrien as well as Gabriel and Marinette are different than in the old fic and I'm happy to say that the first interactions kind of solidify their standing at this point.
> 
> I made Melodie cute and sweet and high energy! I like Melodie. I didn't even think about bringing a scrapped character from the original Miraculous Ladybug concept, but once I did i knew it FELT RIGHT! I'm very excited to hear some opinions on Melodie, so please drop a comment down below. I really wish to have feedback on this part since she's completely knew with no basis from the old version of my fic.


	3. Lies and dire consequences!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! This one introducing our first antagonist as well as hinting at the main antagonist of the series. Here we go!
> 
> Happy reading!

The universe was weird. Some people were born into a life of luxury and bliss, either growing up to be some self entitled brat or becoming an upstanding citizen who would give up to society, others being on the neutral side and keeping to themselves, trying to live their best life. Then there was the other side, the people born in pour or medium class families, mostly doomed to a life of infamy or, even worse, one where they needed to fight every day just to have food. Lila Rossi was in the aforementioned middle class. She was a simple girl just like most everyone else, lacking in talents, outstanding intelligence or incredible physical ability, her mother but a humble office worker at some international company. A result of her mother’s work she ended up moving a lot, changing schools just as frequently and, in time, she learned to make herself much more ‘interesting’. First, her mother became an European ambassador, working tirelessly day and night to for the good of the good of the entire continent. Lila herself became the friend of all celebrities and, due to moving a lot, she picked up a little culture from everywhere, making her travels seem more believable (which they were, just everything else was a lie). In addition Lila’s life became so much more interesting because she had to overcome ‘the odds’: she was plagued with tons of ‘illnesses’, all very rare and very specific in what they did; in addition she had various ‘accidents’ from which she ‘didn’t fully recover’. This was Lila Rossi’s ‘Truth’:

She was cultured;

She was courageous;

She was a genius;

She was kind;

She was charitable;

She was _Adored!_

After all that Lila was **finally** satisfied! She mesmerized everyone she met with her ‘Truth’, being showered with praise and attention. Whenever her ‘Truth’ was about to fall apart she would simply come up with a new detail to somehow make herself out to be even better! Then once she became the queen of her class, it was time to bow out and move on, her mother’s work once again requiring them to move. Kisses and hugs and promises of talking again as she said goodbye to her old life and deleted all the phone numbers she accumulated, changing her social platform handle to make sure nobody from her old lives would catch up to her and break down her ‘Truth’. That was the life Lila Rossi lived and, when her mother told her they would be settling down, in Paris no less, one of the capitals of the fashion world, home of great art, culture and good food and drinks (lots of cheese and fine chocolates and wonderful, **wonderful** cafés), the place where the ‘Language of love’ was spoken, she was delighted. What she was the most delighted of however was the idea of a long con, of dazzling a new group of ~~morons~~ admirers and becoming the queen of the new school she was going to attend, which was Francoise Dupont…

The roster of students she was put into the same class with seemed to be the usual ~~easy to fool material~~ friendly and honest kind that embraced her with open arms, this nature boosted and maintained by the ~~naïve~~ wonderful homeroom teacher, Miss Bustier! However there were three outliers in the mix, teenager who clearly wouldn’t accept her ‘Truth’: Chloe Bourgeois, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Alya Cesaire. The first and third weren’t people to be worried about… but that second one… Marinette Dupain-Cheng was going to be an interesting opponent to **crush** … These people were quite rare, and unlike all the ~~sheep~~ admirers, they would see the flaws in her lies, or simply conduct research to see if her claims held up, reject her ‘Truth’ and try to prove to others that she was ‘lying’. They were not the kind of people to be fooled by her persona and charm, nor the kind to sit down and allow her to continue spreading her ‘Truth’ and have her way, the fools having some sort of justice complex that made them need to act. All of them up till now had been dealt with, destroyed, crushed, brushed aside and so **incredibly** destroyed socially that they had to move schools in order to get away from her… the blue haired girl was different:

Marinette was **_bold_** ;

Marinette was **_knowledgeable_** ;

Marinette was **_logical_** ;

Marinette was **_quick-witted_** ;

Marinette was **_patient_** ;

Marinette **_understood_** liars;

Marinette understood how to **_twist words_** ;

Marinette understood how to **_trick people_** ;

 _Marinette!_ _Didn’t! Back! **Down!**_

Lila Rossi met, for the first time in her life, someone she could consider a match, someone that knew her game and knew how to **play** her game. In order to get rid of her she would need more than just a few empty words to destroy her. The first thing the Italian girl did was use ‘coercive tactics’: she first began with putting bleach on Marinette’s chair, hoping her enemy would sit down and have her clothes ruined… the young fashion designer cleaned the chair and made sure to not sit directly on it for good measure; Lila then decided to break into her locker and fill it up with trash… Marinette cleaned it up and then changed the lock combination, adding a second lock (which had a key); later down the line Lila, fed up with the fact that she needed to come up with a new trick, decided to spy on the girl and steal a precious book of hers… the book magically disappeared from her room and was back in the blue haired teen’s possession probably, never brought to school for theft again; Lila trailed the young fashion designer to her home, but this time she couldn’t even do anything: Marinette lived on the second floor of a stupid bakery! She couldn’t even get in and steal that book again even if she wanted to… the Italian teen decided she needed to change tactics, and went forward with full on destruction of her enemy’s image. The plan she came up with was simple: steal and plant an answer sheet to a test in Marinette’s bag, plant an object of hers in Marinette’s locker, determine the teacher to make both girls go to the principal’s office on account of the former allegedly (and prooven) cheating on a test, convince the old fool that Marinette pushed her down the stairs and is bullying her on top of being a cheater and, finally, just to finish her off for good, accuse her of stealing the object she put in her locker, destroying her image at the school. The plan was perfect. It couldn’t fail!

Or could it?

Lila’s plan immediately went off the rails when the planted answer sheet was missing from the blue haired teen’s pest. This had required her to do some mental gymnastics to get the both of them to the principal, using a copy of the answer sheet (which she had made on a whim) and making it appear that she found it in Marinette’s schoolbag. Once that was achieved Lila was sure of victory.

“Ready for your reputation to be ruined?” asked the Italian teen. Marinette rolled her eyes and watched as Lila walked back down the stairs and pretended to be fallen over, holding her knee and crying out over dramatically, getting the attention of the substitute teacher that was working. Lila was carried all the way to the principal’s office while Marinette had to limp there with her cane, which was the salt on the wound that Lila really enjoyed about her plan. There in the principal’s office she began a long winded spiel about how Marinette had been mistreating her, bullying her, about how she had cheated on a test and about how she… Lila had stopped her speech when she noticed that the principal eyes were looking a little down. Lila herself looked down at her hurt knee, so hurt that even a slight tap would make her ‘cry out in pain’ (her own words) and saw Marinette **tapping her fingers on it**. She looked at the blue haired teen, seeing her other hand was pointing to her knee.

“That’s a hurt knee alright! One that would make her scream in pain if tapped lightly, right Mister Damocles?” That made Lila lose it, but she still had one ace up her sleeve: she had planted her necklace in the young fashion designer’s locker.

“You know I wouldn’t have done this if you haven’t stolen my grandmother’s necklace Marinette!” she exclaimed. Her ‘grandmother’s necklace’ was something she had been wearing for a while, inspired by an image she saw in the blue-haired pest’s weird book.

“Your what? **Lily-pad** , I didn’t steal anything from you.” replied Marinette with a laugh, adding the nickname since she decided to go for her own name.

“YES YOU HAVE! I saw you put it in your locker this morning.”

“Calm down now! The both of you! If you really did see Miss Dupain-Cheng put it in her locker then it must still be there. We’ll just go check and see!”

“Very well. But if we’re doing this then we shall do it professionally.” conceded Marinette. Lila had the foggiest of ideas what her enemy meant by that, still feeling a little uneasy despite what she knew was going to be an easy victory. Principal Damocles and Lila followed Marinette, who first took a detour at her class and peeked in:

“Reincomprix, your police expertise is needed!” called out Marinette.

“I-I don’t have police expertise!” exclaimed Sabrina, surprised. That made Lila mentally laugh. She was about to tell the blue haired pest to stop wasting time when she said:

“Yes you have. Don’t downgrade yourself Reincomprix. You’ll make a good cop. Today is the time to prove that to yourself.” said Marinette. The fact that she had given her a compliment made Lila incredibly frightened, but she couldn’t do anything but watch and wait. The three teenagers and principal walked to the lockers, Marinette putting on a pair of black leather gloves. She opened the locker and her hand was prepared to catch the necklace.

“Aha! I knew you stole it! See Mister Damocles! She had been treating me horribly, not to mention the fact that she is a cheater.”

“Reincomprix, do you have anything to mention about what just happened.” The principal, knowing Marinette for an entire year to be a dependable person and the one that managed to give him an entire legal explanation on what the Mayor of Paris can and can’t do and what he, as a citizen and school Principal could do to protect himself, waited to see what the young fashion designer had to defend herself. Sabrina looked a little lost for a second, before her eyes lit up, her mind making a connection.

“You have put a second lock on your locker, which means you’re the only one who can open it.”

”Good! And?” at Marinette’s question Sabrina walked over, the blue haired teen pulling of one of her gloves and giving it to her.

“When you opened the door the necklace fell out, which means you would have had to place it leaning on the door, which is impossible.”

“Go on.”

“If you were to place it there you would have put it somewhere in the back or on top of everything else. However, if someone were to use the grate at the top…” Sabrina trailed off.

“…the necklace would end up leaning on the door and fall out when you would open the locker. Almost as if it was put there~!” completed Marinette.

“Not necessarily!” said Sabrina, surprising everyone. “If you wanted to make it look like it was planted there you could have pushed it through the grate yourself.”

“Then what do you suggest we do? It’s obviously not me, but I can’t prove it.”

“No, but there is one more thing to verify.” said Sabrina, pulling out a makeup kit. “Part of an investigation is looking for fingerprints!” She took the brush and used it on the locker door… the locker was strangely devoid of fingerprints… “Did you clean your locker door recently?”

“In the time span of today? Fat chance! I was with Alya all day and even you saw that I never went to the locker room at all. Lila had her necklace yesterday, so I couldn’t have stolen it then.”

“How about the necklace itself then?”

“This is ridiculous!” interjected Lila, as she walked over. “Give me my necklace and give up!” she said, her facade breaking a little. Marinette limped to separate Sabrina and Lila, giving the former the necklace.

“Afraid of something? Afraid that your fingerprints are the only ones on there?”

“You could have wiped it clean!”

“Then there would be no fingerprints.” supplied Sabina helpfully, leaning to the side of Marinette before leaning back behind her.

Sabrina did discover finger print fragments on the necklace and both Marinette and Lila had to give their own finger prints for comparison. From her locker the blue haired teen pulled out a magnifying glass, giving it the orange haired teen… The only finger prints that matched the fragments on the necklace were Lila’s.

* * *

Just like that, Lila Rossi’s **own** reputation was ruined… and with it in shambles, the young fashion designer began to cut the wound in deeper and disprove her every lie, turning the whole class against her, her gloating being the cheery on top. In the second year at Francoise Dupont Marinette herself, along with Alya (Lila had a feeling it was the latter’s idea), decided to work on reintegrating her into the class, allowing her to participate in class activities and outings, thinking there had to be something about her that was… likable… Lila however was only thinking about how to get back in the good graces of the class with something mesmerizing… and a trip to the museum was the perfect opportunity to nab something and pretend it was some family heirloom.

Lila gave the old excuse of needing to go to the toilet, but instead managed to stealthily infiltrate the restricted are of the museum. She entered a room that had the door open, seeing a man occupied at a table. She quickly looked around, her eyes caught by the sight of a beautiful, brown, beaded pendant necklace, the pendant looking like it was made from amber, a little fossilized scorpion inside. She tip toed over to it and snatched it, however, the second she did, the man sat up in his chair. Lila turner around to leave as the room was bathed in yellow brown light and the man got of his chair, ran fast enough to beat her to the door, locked it and pulled the little rotating thing that acted as the lock out of the door, breaking it and keeping it close. The Italian teen began screaming as he grabbed her.

“What do you think you are doing young lady?” asked the man, who was simultaneously the source of the light, while his body was veiled in darkness, giving the impression of the light coming from behind him at all times, despite the fact it radiated in the entire room as if he wasn’t there.

“NO! LET ME GO! SOMEBODY HELP ME!”

“Shout as much as you wish; this room is soundproofed.” he said as he forcefully pulled the necklace out of her hands and threw her to the floor. The man put the necklace on and began to grow in size and change in shape, the veil of darkness and the light disappearing, making way for a monstrous, scorpionic appearance. Lila really began to scream then, begging not be killed or eat or hurt in any way and apologizing profusely for stealing the necklace, the girl feeling like she was in the worst nightmare imaginable. The monster punched the floor near her.

“ **SHUT UP!** ” he shouted. She let out one last scream before she covered her mouth. The monster looked at her and she heard the sound of a deep guttural ‘Hm’. He was cleanly humming in thought, perhaps thinking about eating her or not. His monster appearance instead receded, the silhouetted man back and holding a hand for her to grab. She accepted and was pulled up. “Because you clearly understand what you are dealing with, here is an explanation: you attempted to steal a Miraculous, a magical jewel protected by a guardian and providing someone with power beyond comprehension… As punishment for your actions…” Lila dry swallowed when she heard the word punishment. “… you will help me find the Miraculouses that happen to have been misplaced after an incident. May this teach you a lesson on stealing. Meet me back here after dark. If you refuse to show… I will be coming for you.” said the silhouetted man menacingly.

Lila Rossi had no idea what she was in for when she came back after dark and received a necklace similar to her own, the only difference being that the chain was silver and the tail was several light shades of blue, ending in a black tip.

“You have training to do young… uh…”

“Lila Rossi.”

“Young Lila Rossi. From today onward you shall be known as Volpina, and when I consider you ready, you shall find my missing Miraculouses and bring them to me…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first wrote Lila's origin and how Marinette chipped away at her lies until she cracked the facade I realized that having Marinette KNOW Lila's game and understand how to play it was actually a big factor for how she would inevitable win. In the locker scene (and prior to that) I essentially had Marinette getting Sabrina to help by telling her what 'she wanted' (sound familiar?) then everything came naturally from there. I also liked the idea of using a more police-like procedure to find out who put the necklace in the locker than it magically disappearing.
> 
> Chai is spooky again... or I hope he is? I want him to be scarier again, and not the pushover he ended up being.
> 
> Volpina is still the name I'm going with. No need to change it since it's already perfect. What I am changing is how Lila acquired it. In the original version she made it on the spot, but here Chai gave it to her, cementing her status as nothing but a tool to him, one he names and uses as he pleases... and once she's no longer useful...
> 
> On another note, I started watching doctor house gain. Still as good as I remembered, but I think I'm only now noticing Hugh Laurei's hair... you know what I'm talking about probably. Anyway, that's all for now. Cheers!


	4. The fun begins… (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the dies are rolled and our stage set, the time for the conflict is upon us and today we'll find out how it starts. It will all begin with some familiar rain...

This year things were going to be different, for Marinette, for Adrien, for Alya, for Lila and for Chloe… Things were going to take place: friendships will be ruined, love will spark, dangerous people will put Paris in peril and heroes will rise up to stop them and keep the peace… But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Things have yet to be put into motion. After Lila’s year long training the scorpion monster, who introduced myself as ‘Master Chai, Guardian of the Miraculous’, considered she was ready to perform her duty and entrusted her with keeping and making use of the Fox Miraculous in order to make the ones who ‘stole them’ come out and attempt to steal hers as well. The Italian teen had no good plan on how to get the thieves’ attention and decided to not bother with it yet. Then Adrien Agreste came to Francoise Dupont; it was as if the universe itself knew what she wanted to do and smiled upon her, giving her the best opportunity to have an amazing intro as the ‘villain’.

* * *

Marinette had no idea of what was about to happen today, thinking that this was the start of another normal school year and that she would just go about her usual business. That was proven a little wrong as she, in the first day of school, met the famous fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, her idol (and the one she would top), then shortly after met his son! The blond teen was quite nice, something which someone that knew Chloe and saw her reaction when he made his appearance wouldn’t deduce. However Marinette was not ‘someone’ and from what she saw the boy was a boundless ball of energy that had no **real** social interactions, a given considering his face was as readable as a comic book. The first thing that happened once lunch came over was him walking over to Marinette:

“Hi! I’m—”

“Adrien Agreste, I know.” Marinette cut him off.

“Did you two meet before school started? What’s going on?” asked Alya, who was walking with Marinette towards the cafeteria.

“I’m actually curious too? Did you meet D-Cheng dude?” asked Nino, who was walking with the blond boy.

“Met his dad this morning. Also it’s **Dupain** -Cheng **dude**!” explained the blue haired, lightly scolding Nino.

“You really don't wanna go with a shorthand on that? Your name’s long.”

“How about I start calling you Lah instead?”

“Thank you for changing his mind!” exclaimed Adrien after a second of processing, breaking the little argument.

“Changing his mind about what?”

“Letting me go to school. He didn’t want to initially, but he let me!”

“Good for you I guess.” she said placidly. Adrien was a bit surprised by her lack of enthusiasm, but he could understand since they never met before.

“Don’t worry dude. She’s usually like this.” whispered Nino.

The four teens sat down at a table together in the cafeteria and began to eat. Marinette was silent while Nino, Alya and Adrien were chatting a little, getting to know each other. The latter noticed that Marinette was keeping to herself and, wanting to become friends with the person that did the impossible and changed his stubborn father’s mind, he decided to include her in the conversation:

“So, uh… Do you like videogames?” asked Adrien.

“…How’d you know?” asked Marinette, pulling out a Playerboi from her blazer’s inner pocket.

“Oh! I like games too, so I decided to ask.”

“What genre do you enjoy the most?” asked Marinette.

“Well… I don’t **really** have a favorite… Maybe fighting games?”

“I enjoy horror and survival games. RPGs too.”

“Do you play Crafters ‘n’ Miners?”

“Yes actually.”

Nino and Alya watched in disbelief as the two casually talked about videogames, the topic then changing to favorite food and then to fashion a little bit, the blond teen talking about his model experience and the young fashion designer mentioning that she was making many designs, some only on paper (for the future), while others were made presently as projects for herself, her parents or her few friends. This discussion continued until, in one of the breaks Ivan and Kim had an altercation, the former being told to go to the principal’s office. Marinette ripped away from her small group of friends and walked over to Miss Bustier, telling her she’ll handle it. The teacher decided to agree to it, knowing Marinette was very likely to intervene anyway. The young fashion designer walked after the large teen.

“Slow down, you don’t have to go to the principal anymore.”

“I… don’t?”

“No, but I promised I’ll handle it. So what is it? What did Chien do Bruel?”

“…” Ivan didn’t speak. Marinette went full on analysis mode. She looked down at his hand, seeing that he was a holding a crumpled piece of paper. The fact that he didn’t want to talk about it meant that it was embarrassing or personal, or both. The fact that Kim knew about it meant it wasn’t personal enough to keep a secret and was also something the jock would laugh at him for. Perhaps something he failed at? That was usually a reason for the jock to pick on someone for? _What would Ivan fail at though…?_ Marinette knew that Ivan was, despite his appearance, a bit shy and had issues with the finer details of social interaction… _Of course!_

“Which girl is it?” asked Marinette suddenly, making the large teen stare at her, stunned. “Don’t give me that look! It’s the only conclusion I could come to.”

“It’s… Mylene…”

“Alignment of the shrinking violets. Logical choice…” she murmured.

“If you’re following me to make fun of then leave!” he replied. Marinette sighed.

“Ok, listen Bruel. You’re a though guy, inside and out, but you’re purposefully leaving yourself open for stupid things like Chien making fun of you. What you **need** to do is learn to use the comments people say to make fun of you and fuel a desire to prove them wrong.”

“So… you think I have a chance to… make Mylene like me back…?” asked Ivan.

“ **Obviously.** She’s actually the only option for you and you are the only option for her.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I’m going to get back to Cesaire now.” said Marinette as she turned round and began limping away, pulling out her medicine bottle and downing a pill.

“Wait! You’re a girl— I mean, uh…” The young fashion designer resisted the urge to laugh at the large teen, understanding exactly what he wanted: love advice.

“Do something cheesy; Mylene too shy for any complicated stuff.” said the blue haired teen without even turning back.

“Something ‘cheesy’?” asked Ivan.

“Poems, chocolate, flowers, a song. Whichever you’re good at.” said Marinette.

The blue haired teen didn’t care much for love advice, but she gave him what was best. She very well knew that Ivan would need to make himself less scary if he wanted to wow Mylene, but she left the how of getting Mylene to like him back in his hands. _As if I’m gonna handhold a relationship. Nobody gave **me** a hand! And I did it with a disability on top of it._ she thought, frustrated, to herself. Marinette’s wasn’t in the mood for anymore niceties that day and remained silent, no longer talking to Adrien, which saddened the blond a bit. The other blond of the class felt betrayed and angry, Chloe not having even the slightest chance to talk to her ‘friend’ at any point during the day… All she wanted was to yell at him a bit, but, by the time the first day of school ended, she was no longer in the mood.

* * *

It was raining… Today seemed like such a sunny day and yet it was raining. And Adrien didn’t even think about bringing an umbrella. Maybe he should have checked the weather forecast before he decided to make a run for school, that way he would have probably brought an umbrella with him. The worst part about it was that the car was right there and his bodyguard was not coming out, meaning he didn’t bring an umbrella either. _Time to run for the car I guess…_ the blond teen thought to himself. His father would probably be extremely worried (and not show it, like he usually didn't) and make a doctor’s appointment in order to be sure he didn’t get a cold or something. As Adrien psyched himself up to run through the rain he heard the sound of an umbrella opening and looked to the side to see Alya and Marinette.

“That’s your ride, right?” asked the blue haired teen, pointing to his personal car.

“Y-Yeah! Yes, it is. I’m about to run for it and—”

“Shut up and get under this umbrella Agreste…” said Marinette. Adrien was completely oblivious to the fact that young fashion designer wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of her heart, but because Alya had seen the blond and told her to do it. The two teens walked over to the car and, in the meantime, Nino came outside.

“It’s still going…? Come on!” He looked over when he heard Alya’s little giggles, seeing the blogger filming Marinette and Adrien together. “Is that…?”

“Yup!”

“Are they...?”

“Not really, but it sure looks like it!” The two teens laughed together, Alya schooling her expression as much as she could and putting her phone in her bag as Marinette came back.

“You’re in an awfully good mood…” said the blue haired teen, sensing Alya did something.

“You did listen to me for once! By the way, what happened with Ivan?”

“Don’t change the subject Cesaire.” said Marinette as she leaned close to her friend. “What did you do…?” she slowly asked as she glared at her. Alya, predictably, put on her smug face and crossed her arms, giving the young fashion designer the opportunity to pull the phone out of her bag.

“You’re paranoid girl! Why would I do anything?” asked Alya. Without even looking down at her phone, the blue haired girl punched in the code and entered the gallery on Alya’s phone. She looked down for one second, clueing the blogger in. “Give me my phone!” she exclaimed with a laugh, Marinette keeping it out of her reach. Nino came to the rescue, taking it from Marinette’s hand and throwing it to Alya. The young fashion designer caught it midair and threw it up.

“Catch!” she said, making Alya catch her cane. Marinette caught the phone and, with swift finger movement, deleted the video.

“Aw come on!”

“Absolutely not! Are you insane?… We’re on school grounds!” she said with irony.

“Oh shut up! When did you ever care about rules?”

“When they’re in my advantage they’re pretty good!”

* * *

Adrien was in the car as his bodyguard drove him home. The blond teen was incredibly happy. His day was the best he had ever had in **years**! He got to go to school and made friends! Friends that weren’t just Chloe! He suddenly remembered that he and Chloe didn’t talk at all today, so he decided to call her, feeling uneasy for some reason… the call went to voicemail. That was odd. _She doesn’t usually ignore my calls…_ he thought to himself. With the sound of rain, the car and with his mind elsewhere, he didn’t hear the sound of something falling top of his car. However he did hear the sound of a chainsaw and saw its blade cut through the car roof before a girl dressed in a skintight cyan and black bodysuit that made her look like she had white, elbow length gloves and white, thigh high boots, black on her chest, a sash belt acting as a flowing cyan, black tipped tail, with long fox ears and a cyan and white mask that made her eyes white voids, her hair long, and with cyan lipstick on.

“Hello Adrien~! LET’S GO FOR A RIDE!” the strange girl said, first seductively before she exploded into crazed shouting. Adrien tried to scurry away, but there wasn’t much room for him to move, and she pulled him out through the hole she made, making him go unconscious with a single punch and jumping away, high into the sky, the car having just stopped and the boy’s bodyguard having just gotten out.

Adrien woke up in pain, feeling coldness, as well as the wetness of his clothes from the rain. He looked around and saw that he was suspended in the air, tied up to the Eiffel Tower, a giant pair of scissors ready to cut the rope and let him fall to his doom. He heard the sound of that girl from before, only amplified by giant speakers.

“Heroes of Paris! I, Volpina, am requesting your presence. COME ON OVER AND GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUSES OR ELSE ADRIEN AGRESTE IS GOING **SPLAT**!” she shouted by the end before erupting into evil, maniacal, laughter…

* * *

“That’s not good…” mumbled Marinette. She and Melodie had come down from the living room and saw what was happening on the news after her parents called her over.

“Excuse us Mister Dupain and Miss Cheng! It’s best if we don’t drown this room in negative energy, so me and Mari will go worry upstairs!” said the energetic blond, pulling the blue haired teen back up the stairs. Nooroo came out of her blazer the moment they were out of ear shot.

“This is terrible! Paris has no heroes to defend itself from a supervillain!... I assume that was a supervillain on the TV… I didn’t actually look.”

“It was. Scary, crazed and violent wolf girl!” said Melodie.

“She’s magic! There’s no way she managed to bring a pair of speakers almost as big the Eiffel Tower and plop them right there in the span of time we arrived back home. Hm…”

Melodie gasped, looking between Nooroo and Marinette with a big smile on her face and stars in her eyes, her body language radiating boundless excitement.

“You’re gonna do the thing! The **magic** thing!” she said excitedly.

“Yes.”/”NO!” said the Kwami and his master at the same time.

“B-But Mistress Marinette—” began the little purple Kwami.

“Nooroo, it’s **just Marinette** …” she cut him off tiredly. They clearly had this discussion before.

“M-Marinette, we all heard what Volpina said! You c-can’t just hand her over the Miraculous!”

“I’m not handing her the Miraculous. I’m going to scare her off with your powers.” she said, going over to a certain part of her room and tapping her cane on it, pressing a button in the floor that made circular of the ceiling to fall down next to her, the small platform held aloft by rope. Nooroo settled on Marinette’s shoulder as she stepped onto the platform.

“Can I come too?” asked Melodie.

“Not today! Go sit on my chaise longue or my bed and wait it out or something.” Melodie went over and sat on her bed, making Marinette snicker.

“It’s really fluffy…! Good luck Marinette! I hope you choose me as your hero.”

“Sorry, I can’t; I need you here to keep my parents from checking on me.” said Marinette as she let the platform lift her up in her Garden…

* * *

Meanwhile, not even at the Agreste Manor, but rather in the rain, running on roofs, was Grand Chat, going towards the Eiffel Tower, the last words Plagg said before he transformed echoing in his head:

_“What in the world are you doing?! Get off your ass and go save your son!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked the idea of reversing the roles at the umbrella scene. It's beauty in simplicity.  
> Alya can't blackmail Marinette for the life of her. The blue haired teen can read her like a book. Also is that a love triangle I smell in the air... it smells like oranges.  
> This is the last chapter introducing character dynamics (for now). Today we got a look at the our four group of friends interacting, as well as a closer look into the relationship between Marinette and Melodie.  
> I really like Volpina (the concept behind her, not necessarily the character). This is her first proper introduction and I really wanted to nail down the fact that she's acting insane as her villainous now, a big departure from the original one.


	5. Intermission and apologies!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
> 
> BREAKING RADIO SILENCE!

Greetings everyone!

I'm here to apologies for the recent radio silence on my part and the lack of update last week on this fic. What I am also here to do is explain why that is so I can clear any confusion that might exist while also getting off my chest. Here we go...

Life has recently exerted me in unpleasant ways. Between, my personal life, studies and recovering from... recent injuries... I've had a hard time finding a moment somewhen in ny day to sit down and write. I am NOT going to discontinue this fic. It will keep going. And this weekend, to make it up to you, I'm going to post 2 CHAPTERS!

:3

Anyway... with all that being said: I've been thinking! Would it be an issue to change the updating schedule? I was thinking of posting two chapters a week with a week break in between, keeping up with the '4 chapters every month' plan I have, but keeping it a little more spaced out for myself. What do you think? Please drop a comment down below and tell me if this is ok.

Happy reading! Cheers!

**Author's Note:**

> A new beginning for the REDUX! As you noticed this first chapter is way longer than the original version, as I promised.
> 
> The main change in the narrative in the new version is that Gabriel knew of the Miraculouses for a lot longer and even made use of the Black Cat Miraculous. I made this choice because I was dissatisfied with Gabriel’s mostly passive role in my original story up till now. This will change, as I want Mister Agreste to be much more involved in the plot than before. You guys will see how as the story progresses.
> 
> I really hope I can get the same following as before from you. From all the amounts of hits and kudos and comments I’ve gotten I started feeling like I can do much better by you guys. Not to mention that as time passed my writing skills have improved and felt the need to have my fic be of the same quality and length all the way through (the fact that what I had been posting had been very old and written even before my first post on AO3 in 2019 was also to blame for the original quality)
> 
> I hope you all had a happy reading and that you will show the same excitement for the remake!


End file.
